


Home Is Where the Heart Is

by author_abz



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 03:53:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19287568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/author_abz/pseuds/author_abz
Summary: Nate doesn't like days when he and Tyson don't drive home together - those days end up a lot weirder than their usual routine.





	Home Is Where the Heart Is

**Author's Note:**

> This fic exists because I was craving straight-up fluff for these two, and sometimes you just have to do it for yourself.
> 
> Many thanks to my betas Rach and Tarra, they were helpful and enthusiastic, and if there are any errors left in the fic they are my fault, not theirs, because I am stubborn and sometimes do not take good advice. (Also I've just been... really tired? In the typing up process of this fic.)

Nate doesn’t like days when he and Tyson don’t drive home together. It’s not because he can’t stand to spend time apart from his boyfriend - it’s more that those days end up a lot weirder than their usual routine and Nate likes consistency in his day. When they drive home together they generally hang out at one of their houses, walk their dogs, cook dinner together, and usually get to bed at a reasonable hour. They don’t live together, but it’s close, and it works, and Nate likes their system. Even when they don’t hang out, Nate generally knows what Tyson’s up to that day, and he likes that. 

For some reason, when they drive separately because family is in town, or one of them has a business meeting, or a conference call, or a team service event, normalcy goes out the window. Sometimes Nate won’t hear from Tyson until the next time they have practice or skate, which he hates - not hearing from Tyson makes him jittery. Most of the time, though, Tyson ends up showing up wherever Nate is, acting really weird. Weirder than he does on a normal day, anyway.

Nate’s trying to make his way through some contract details his agent just sent him regarding a new brand deal when Tyson walks in carrying several grocery bags he sets down on the counter behind Nate. “Hey, babe.”

“Hey,” Nate looks up from the paperwork spread across the table and Tyson gravitates over to give him a kiss hello. “Can you look at this contract? I feel like I’m missing something.”

He frowns down at him and the papers strewn around the table. “Not legally,” he says with a sigh. “ _Legally_ we’re just acquaintances working at the same company - it’s not like we’re _married_.” Nate glares at him as he starts taking food out of the bags. “Speaking of,” he goes on, not letting Nate interject, “I’m making dinner, since _one of us_ in this non-marriage relationship should be able to cook.”

“I have food in the fridge,” Nate says tiredly, glancing at his papers again, trying to decide if he’s done with them yet. He looks back up at Tyson. 

“Yeah, but Veebs sent me a new recipe and it fits with our meal plan so I wanted to try it.”

Standing up, Nate joins Tyson in putting away food, pinning him against the counter. “Aww, you wanna show me how good you are in the kitchen?” Tyson scoffs, folding up an empty tote, and Nate turns him around to face him. “I don’t need you to be a good cook.”

“I like to cook.”

“You like to bake.” Nate kisses his scrunched up face and he can feel Tyson sigh beneath him.

“You can ask me about your contract.”

Nate presses a kiss firmly on Tyson’s cheek. “Thank you!” He doesn’t see it, but he knows Tyson’s rolling his eyes as Nate gathers his papers off the table. He ends up perched on the counter as Tyson prepares the food and they talk through the details of the contract, sneaking bites and kisses.

\---

Nate’s playing Fortnite with the team group online when he suddenly feels Tyson press into his side on the couch. He didn’t hear him come in over the headset, and after he jumps, he smiles even as he nearly dies trying to have JT’s back in the game. Instead of saying something into his mic, he softly nudges Tyson hello.

“Why are all NHL players so stupid?” Tyson sighs heavily, wrapping his arms around Nate’s midriff. 

“ _Hey_ ,” he hears in his headset, and _whoops_ his mic picked that up.

“Not all of them are,” he tries to mute his mic, but it doesn’t work because he’s working to save Mikko now. But Tyson doesn’t add anything else, just settles into Nate’s side, occasionally nosing at his neck, but letting him keep playing. He knows Tyson had an NHLPA conference call earlier, so he isn’t surprised to see him exhausted or annoyed at the people on the call - he’s just surprised he didn’t walk in with a blizzard. Maybe he got one before he came over.

They finish off one game where the whole squad dies at once, and Nate lifts his headset briefly to turn to Tyson and kiss him in greeting. Tyson accepts, then situates himself against Nate’s side more so that he can lean on Nate’s shoulder, watching the TV. He sighs almost contentedly, and then Nate’s playing the game again, feeling better than the last game now Tyson’s there - even if he’s totally disinterested. 

Before the circle shrinks, Tyson pulls out from an unseen pocket some kind of brochure or catalog and starts to flip through it. Out of the corner of his eye, Nate sees him flip through the whole thing and expects him to toss it aside, but the next time he manages to glance over Tyson’s paging through carefully, reading and even dog-earing some pages.. Their group in the game are doing well, which translates into him ignoring Tyson for the duration. When Nate dies on screen, he turns to see Tyson holding up his pamphlet next to Nate’s fingers, his arm on Nate’s, but nothing Nate can blame his not so stellar Fortnite skills on. Putting down his controller, Nate moves his hand to hold the one on his arm, and Tyson moves the brochure next to their entwined fingers.

Looking at the picture, he can see now that it’s _rings_ ; a variety of golden _engagement rings_ line the page, and Tyson’s stretched out their fingers next to the pictures. All of the bands look basically the same, so Nate’s not sure what’s happening. “Tys?”

“I just wanted to see. You want a gold ring, right?”

“I don’t know,” Nate answers, lying through his teeth - they’d only talked about this when they were a few drinks deep, and he thought they’d both either forgotten the conversation or were politely pretending it never happened. “Tys, you know we can’t get married.” Nate adds, very quietly, his voice wavering.

Undeterred, Tyson responds, “No, but I can still buy you jewelry if I want.” Nate raises an eyebrow at that, and their eyes meet before Tyson’s expression breaks and he flips to a different page. “It showed up in my mailbox, I’m just looking.” The new page has silver bands on it, and their intertwined hands turn so Tyson’s fingers are easier to see next to the pictures. He’s trying not to look too closely at the brochure, just to focus on their intertwined fingers, but a band with a simple design jumps out at him. A ring he wants to get for Tyson that he knows would look great, and he turns to kiss Tyson on the temple.

“Well, if they’re on sale,” he says into Tyson’s hair, and he can feel his smile against his lips.

\---

Getting home from several days away from home - especially when it’s not a regular season road trip - always throws off Nate. He almost expects Tyson to already be in his house, but the house is empty and too quiet. The easy part is unpacking his bag and changing out of his suit, and then unconsciously he starts out towards Tyson’s house. He isn’t even sure Tyson is there, or whether the doggie hotel is open to pick up Cox, but reconnecting with Tyson usually resets Nate’s mental programming.

The lights are on at Tyson’s house, thankfully, and the door is open when he reaches it. Immediately he hears the clack of dog nails on hardwood walking over to him and his dog Cox is here, and he doesn’t even look up from petting him until he hears Tyson enter the room, singing quietly off-key to himself. Tyson’s wearing a nearly too big faded concert tee shirt and sweatpants. The pants haven’t moved down his hips at all, so Nate knows he just changed into them.

“Hey,” he says from the floor, his hand still on Cox’s head, and he barely has time to brace for impact before Tyson’s puppy, Ralphie, barrells into him, also demanding attention.

Tyson jumps a little bit, but he shrugs it off. “Hey, good timing.”

“Did you just get back?” he asks, caught between the two dogs as he tries to get up.

“Sort of,” Tyson makes a face and Nate catches him looking at the pile of shopping bags sitting on his table Nate didn’t notice. “Want a drink?” he asks, grabbing two bottles from the fridge even as Nate doesn’t answer.

Nate escapes from the dog attention to meet Tyson by the kitchen counter, kissing him as he takes a bottle from his hand. “So what’d you buy?” he asks before the kisses get out of hand. Met with a shrug from Tyson as he takes a sip of his beer, Nate opens the nearest bag and comes up with a fresh pack of underwear.

Tyson smirks at him. “Just some boring errands.”

But Nate knows that smirk, so he smiles and keeps opening bags until he finds what he’s playing off. There’s more underwear, a few ties, hair product, soap, dog treats, dog toys, a new dog food bowl, and - “Tyson, since when do you need a new dildo?” He laughs, pulling out everything from the bag, “and a - butt plus, a cock ring, a -” he stops as he fully unpacks the bag and realizes there’s another full one next to it. “What, did they all get destroyed? Are these to take to your new boyfriend’s house?” He teases, but exasperatedly - it’s like he replaced his _entire_ toy chest.

“ _No_ ,” Tyson huffs, his face and ears a deep pink. “You were talking about how all of the ones I had were full of gross, bad for you chemicals and plastics -” he starts to unpack the second bag, not looking at Nate, “so I bought new ones that don’t have the bad chemicals.”

Nate picks up one of the toys already on the table, reading the packaging and it does explicitly list all the bad chemicals it does _not_ contain, and he sees that the “natural, earth friendly!” brand is on several of the packages. “Oh,” he says, watching Tyson fold up the bags now they’re empty, happy to see he also bought more condoms and lube. 

“And they were fucking expensive, so they stay here - you can’t use them with any new boyfriend you get.”

“I’m not getting a new boyfriend,” Nate answers, bemused.

“Well, good.”

“Yeah, I really like the one I have, I want to keep him for a long time.”

“Good,” Tyson says again, voice calmer and he’s leaning in toward Nate now. “These new ones are supposed to last a really long time.”

They’re smiling at each other, both leaning in, and Nate wants to pick a new toy up and suggest they try it out, but his eye catches on something different to grab. “This had bad chemicals in it?”

Tyson’s eyes flick over to what Nate’s holding and then he rolls them. “No, but you almost broke the pair I have, and there was a really cool BDSM display.”

Nate puts the handcuffs back down next to what must be some new BDSM stuff in the same branded packaging. “Cool.” 

Tyson kisses him, grinning, but before Nate can even wrap his arms around Tyson, he pulls back to ask, “Can you help me put everything away before we play with our new toys?”

Letting out a long dramatic groan, Nate kisses him once before turning back to the table and gathering up all the bathroom stuff. “Fine,” he says, his grumpy voice overtaken by softness and fondness.

\---

There are a few people in town visiting Tyson, so Nate’s happy to take a few meetings on his off day in addition to talking with the trainers and picking up a few groceries. When he finally makes it home, hauling in a few bags he jumps and nearly drops them at a voice from the couch. “Hey, Nate.”

He turns and lets out a breath. “Hey, Veebs.” He waits for her to say something but she doesn’t get up or put down her phone. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought Tyson was here.” She puts down her phone and stands up. 

“He’s not here,” he stops and glances around, “is he?”

“No, but he left the house with Ralphie and it looked like he was walking over here, and since Dad was being annoying I left too.”

A few years ago Nate might have needed more context, but he’s been here for more than enough family visits and heard plenty from Tyson - and then eventually Victoria - to get it. “Well, hang out as long as you - “ he stops short, his gaze finally focusing on the back corner where Cox’s crate is, and seeing it’s open. “Where’s Cox?”

“Haven’t seen him, he must be asleep upstairs or something.”

“No,” Nate starts, trying to stay under control, reminding himself that Veebs doesn’t know how well trained Cox is, or the specifics of Cox’s normal routine because he is _not_ asleep upstairs, and he sees that his normal leash is still hanging on the hook. “Cox should be here,” but before he can start to really panic or talk himself out of panicking to come up with a plan, the back door opens.

The familiar sound of dog nails on hardwood comes through the door, and striding through it is both Cox _and_ Ralphie, and tethered behind them, a panting and sweaty Tyson walks in. Relief floods through Nate as he watches the dogs happily get unhooked from their leashes - and then understanding clicks into place watching Tyson take off a large belt around his abdomen the leashes were attached to. Nate had only used the running companion belt leash twice, and he’s baffled and slightly impressed to see Tyson using it and then deftly replacing it on its correct hook.

The first to speak between them, Tyson says, “Veebs, are you breaking and entering, or did Nate let you in?”

“ _No_ ,” she rolls her eyes at her brother. “Sarah told me where the spare is.”

“I’m glad Sarah remembers where it is,” Nate says, not looking up from petting Cox, making sure he didn’t carry anything in on his fur.

“Yeah,” Tyson echoes, going into the kitchen for some water, “but why are you here?”

Nate hears even if he doesn’t quite catch Victoria rolling her eyes. “I came to hang out with you, not to stick around to hear Dad talking about his glory days one-on-one.”

“Sorry.”

“Tys, how many steaks do we have?”

Both of the siblings look over at him before Tyson squints, thinking. “Um, either eight or ten.”

“Okay, so there’s enough to invite the rest of your family over for dinner.” He lets Cox go to run around chasing Ralphie, making sure to catch Tyson’s mingled surprise and annoyance cross his face. It’s an adorable pinched, wide-eyed expression, and even if dinner ends up being a disaster, Nate thinks it’s worth it. 

“Yeah,” Tyson says again, not looking away from Nate. “Sure.” Ralphie runs straight into Nate then and Tyson says, “Veebs, help put away the groceries.”

\---

Nate has to go in to practice early today for a team leader meeting, and he stays later to go through some stuff with the trainers. He’s not expecting for Tyson to be at his house when he gets home and was thinking about maybe heading over to his place. Instead, when he walks in he remembers that both of their families are flying in tomorrow, so he has to finish the organizing and the cleaning he and Tyson started last night. He’s tired just looking at it, but picks up stuff randomly so he doesn’t think _too_ hard about it. Last night they hadn’t been able to agree how much stuff would eventually stay at each other’s houses, Tyson arguing that their families already _knew_ , and Nate arguing they didn’t _officially_ \- his mom still makes comments about grandkids - but Tyson just rolled his eyes at that.

They ended up putting away everything, because they figured out there’s not a lot of stuff anyone could tell is Tyson’s at Nate’s house. “Just clothes, I guess,” Nate had conceded, and Tyson answered him, “Just don’t let your family go through the closets,” he paused, then smiled, “they’ll find you hiding in there.”

Nate laughed a lot at that, even as he protested, “I’m not _in the closet_ ,” but Tyson still took the opportunity to shove him out of one of the guest bedroom closets they were organizing, making him laugh even more. Thankfully the bedrooms are mostly done, but a lot of stuff ended up in the living room and his office that he now needed to make presentable. It was boring, just putting things in drawers and closets, and he put on some music, but still wanted to call Tyson to come over and help even though he probably still needed to clean his own house.

Stuck under his never used desk, grabbing at lost papers, Nate hears the door open and shut and panics, thinking for a minute that his family is there early - there’s a whole “ask Tyson what to do with” section of the dining room table full of very queer stuff. Then he hears Tyson’s voice, “Cox, Ralphie, _no_.”

“Tyson?” he calls from where he’s still stuck.

“Yeah,” he hears him respond, his voice distracted and kind of small. 

Wiggling out from under the desk, Nate happily emerges with the papers that had fallen, setting them on the desk again before heading to the living space where Tyson must be, judging by the happy dog noises. He is there, giving the dogs some treats, and there are giant shopping bags sitting on what had been the rare free spot on the couch. “Hey,” Nate says brightly, making Tyson look up at him. “Did you end up getting all the stuff on my list? Thanks, man, I - “ he starts to walk over to the bags and Tyson cuts him off. 

“Yeah, I got the bathroom stuff,” he says awkwardly, not looking directly at Nate. “I had to get stuff too, so I went to Target and -” Tyson’s face falls as he turns from Nate to the bags. “They were on _sale_ ,” he says loudly, as if Nate’s ever given him too much of a hard time about the stuff he buys.

What Tyson pulls out from one of the bags looks like it’s just a bunch of shiny fabric, but he holds it by its tiny hanger and… it’s a dress. A very small, very fancy baby dress. Or maybe it could fit a toddler, Nate’s not sure.

“That’s really pretty,” Nate says, because it is. “But…” he tries to remember who they know who might be having a baby or just had one. Of the teammates that spring to mind, none fit the timeline, and there’s something about Tyson’s face… “I didn’t know Veebs was expecting.” Nate asks nonchalantly, walking closer as Tyson puts down the dress and pulls out another that’s much bigger with a thousand percent more sparkles and a trio of onesies.

“I don’t think she does, either,” Tyson answers, distracted, pulling out more onesies. “I mean, she’s not - as far as I know.”

Nate stands in front of Tyson and the clothes he bought, and he picks up a set of onesies that are red and black and blue with little pictures of sailboats and anchors and ocean animals on them. “Who are these for?” He asks, helping Tyson empty out the bags onto the couch.

“Uh,” Tyson doesn’t look up, neatly piling the clothes. “They’re not?”

Nate looks at him now instead of the clothes and he can see that his face isn’t red from lugging the bags inside. “I just - bought them.” He looks up at Nate then, eyes pleading, and Nate’s chest feels so full, he’s overcome with fondness and love for Tyson because _yes_ , he _understands_. “They were on _sale_ ,” Tyson repeats, and Nate smiles wide even as Tyson ducks his head down again. “I mean, this one wasn’t -” but Nate’s stopped listening and kisses him.

Nate pulls back and takes a deep breath, “Yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Yes… everything.” Nate says with a small shrug, smiling widely still. But Tyson lifts an eyebrow in question, so he tries to elaborate. “We’ll have one. I’ll get you a ring.”

Tyson’s watching his face carefully, and Nate feels bad for the suspicion in his face, but he also sees the hope and disbelief and that unwavering love for Nate. He wants to watch Tyson’s face forever because it’s the most amazing and most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. “A ring?”

“If you still want one,” Nate answers into Tyson’s shoulder, already overwhelmed with conversation, overwhelmed by how much he loves Tyson, even as he melts into him.

There are several seconds of silence where Nate thinks he should be nervous but he isn’t, before Tyson responds, his voice quiet. “Yeah. I still want one.” He moves their heads so he can kiss Nate on the lips, and it’s so good Nate’s not sure any of this is real.

Maybe that’s why, when they break apart again he picks up one of the sparkly dresses and says, “We’ll get someone to wear this, too.”

“Oh yeah?”

When Nate turns back, Tyson is smiling wide, too. “Yeah.”

They kiss again, but before Nate can get handsy, Tyson interrupts them. “You just proposed to me and said we should have kids, right?” He smirks when Nate scowls at him. “I’m just checking.”

“ _Yes_ ,” Nate answers, exasperated, grabbing Tyson firmly by his hips and steering him to a better spot on the couch. “And I’ll ask you to marry me in a sappy, romantic way too.”

Tyson kisses him on the jaw gently and murmurs, “You’re always sappy.” Then he says in his normal voice, “Too bad we can’t start trying for kids now, though.”

Nate chuckles at that, leaning back into Tyson, pushing him into the couch, “I was _trying_ ,” and Tyson is smiling when he kisses him again.

\---

Nate’s family doesn’t stumble on anything explicitly queer in his house, but his mom does find the baby dresses in a closet, leading him to stammer awkwardly about the clothes being on sale and accidentally telling her that he and Tyson are in love, engaged, and want kids. The hug she gives him is soft and secure, and weirdly they’re both crying when the hug ends.

**Author's Note:**

> So, the moral of this story is that I think Tyson's love language is gifts? I'm not sure when that became my headcanon or if I even phrased that correctly, but I think it works.
> 
> Also I'm so bad at titles, but we all know that by now I'm sure. PRETEND it's a passably good title and we're all fine.


End file.
